Chioccarelli Teresa, Pierantoni Riccardo, Manfrevola Francesco, Porreca Veronica, Fasano Silvia, Chianese Rosanna, Cobellis Gilda
Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli", Via Costantinopoli 16, 80138 Napoli, Italy.
J Clin Med. 2020 Feb 27;9(3):640. doi: 10.3390/jcm9030640.
Spermatozoa (SPZ) are motile cells, characterized by a cargo of epigenetic information including histone post-translational modifications (histone PTMs) and non-coding RNAs. Specific histone PTMs are present in developing germ cells, with a key role in spermatogenic events such as self-renewal and commitment of spermatogonia (SPG), meiotic recombination, nuclear condensation in spermatids (SPT). Nuclear condensation is related to chromatin remodeling events and requires a massive histone-to-protamine exchange. After this event a small percentage of chromatin is condensed by histones and SPZ contain nucleoprotamines and a small fraction of nucleohistone chromatin carrying a landascape of histone PTMs. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a new class of non-coding RNAs, characterized by a nonlinear back-spliced junction, able to play as microRNA (miRNA) sponges, protein scaffolds and translation templates, have been recently characterized in both human and mouse SPZ. Since their abundance in eukaryote tissues, it is challenging to deepen their biological function, especially in the field of reproduction. Here we review the critical role of histone PTMs in male germ cells and the profile of circRNAs in mouse and human SPZ. Furthermore, we discuss their suggested role as novel epigenetic biomarkers to assess sperm quality and improve artificial insemination procedure.
精子(SPZ)是可游动的细胞,其特征在于携带包括组蛋白翻译后修饰(组蛋白PTMs)和非编码RNA在内的表观遗传信息。特定的组蛋白PTMs存在于发育中的生殖细胞中,在精子发生事件中起关键作用,例如精原细胞(SPG)的自我更新和定向分化、减数分裂重组、精子细胞(SPT)中的核浓缩。核浓缩与染色质重塑事件有关,需要大量的组蛋白-鱼精蛋白交换。在此事件之后,一小部分染色质由组蛋白浓缩,并且精子含有核鱼精蛋白和一小部分携带组蛋白PTM景观的核组蛋白染色质。环状RNA(circRNAs)是一类新的非编码RNA,其特征在于非线性反向剪接连接,能够作为微小RNA(miRNA)海绵、蛋白质支架和翻译模板发挥作用,最近在人和小鼠的精子中都有特征描述。由于它们在真核生物组织中的丰度,深入了解它们的生物学功能具有挑战性,尤其是在生殖领域。在这里,我们综述了组蛋白PTMs在雄性生殖细胞中的关键作用以及小鼠和人类精子中circRNAs的概况。此外,我们讨论了它们作为新型表观遗传生物标志物在评估精子质量和改进人工授精程序方面的潜在作用。